Start your engines

BLOOMING PRAIRIE — This school year, the Blooming Prairie FFA is piloting a small engine repair class that is already picking up speed.

When Abigail Bohlen joined the Blooming Prairie staff about four years ago as an agricultural educator and an FFA adviser, the FFA chapter had about 50 members, but now, they have nearly doubled to just under 100 members.

“The kids span from all areas of life,” Bohlen said. “We have some who live on fully functioning farms, and we have some who have never had any ag experience. … Our chapter is all over the place when it comes to experience and different backgrounds.”

Many years ago, before Bohlen was born, Blooming Prairie had a popular automotive shop, but it eventually faded away as the teacher in charge retired and its program stopped. When Bohlen arrived, though, community members brought up the small engines program as something that would be worth revitalizing. This was her first teaching position after college, and Bohlen waited until she had settled into her role in Blooming Prairie before considering it around the 2023-24 school year.

Bohlen knew the program would be expensive, but she secured a number of grants, including a $7,000 grant from the Minnesota Agricultural Education Leadership Council, $6,500 from a state IMPACT Grant, a $4,000 grant from Compeer Financial, and a $10,000 grant plus 10 engines, a $3,750 value, from a state Perkins V grant.

“The school didn’t have to pay a penny,” Bohlen said. “It was all grant-funded.”

The small engine class started in the fall semester of the 2025-26 school year with about 25 students. This semester, there are about 15 students enrolled. In the first part of the class, each student disassembles and reassembles one class-provided two-stroke engine. After this was complete, the fall semester student group worked on about five snowmobiles, a couple of chainsaws, some generators and a dirtbike.

“If they didn’t have something else to bring in, then they just continued tearing apart and putting together that same engine model they all started with,” Bohlen said. “In total, they’ve taken apart and put back together at least two engines completely, and each student has probably worked on two or three additional (engines).”

Most of Bohlen’s students have already started driving, and so far, from the feedback Bohlen has received, the small engine class has opened their eyes to what is going on inside their vehicles.

“When you look at (an engine), … when you think about it, it should just explode,” Bohlen said. “You have all these bits and pieces that, when you put them all together, … you create a machine that can power who knows how many things in this world.”

Looking ahead, Bohlen hopes the class can get to a point where they can start offering the community some simple engine services to small motor-driven appliances, and the proceeds from that would benefit the small engines class to help sustain it. The benefits of the program, though, already go beyond financial.

“I see kids who the other teachers don’t get to see thrive,” Bohlen said. “A lot of my students struggle with math (or) English or don’t really love science, but then they come down here, and … they are the stars. They are the ones stepping up to teach their peers when they don’t understand something. … I get to see them thrive.”